ABSTRACT
In 1975, the Journal of Medical Ethics published its inaugural issue. The aim of the journal, as its editors described it, was to ‘provide a forum for the reasoned discussion of moral issues arising from the provision of medical care’ (JME Editors 1975: 1). They made it clear that medical ethics depends on ‘the resources of the disciplines of law, philosophy and theology, as well as on the whole range of medical and paramedical specialties’ (JME Editors 1975: 1). In other words, medical ethics was not considered to be the sole province of physicians themselves, but was instead characterised as a multi-disciplinary endeavour – one that extended far beyond the scope of individual clinical decision-making. Thus, papers on euthanasia, artificial insemination, cryo-banking, abortion and research ethics committees sat side-by-side with ones on patient communication.
